Marauder's Map
by wouldtheywriteasongforyou
Summary: I solemnly swear that I am up to no good. "Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present THE MARAUDER'S MAP." A collection of drabbles / one-shots that happened in the Marauders Era and/or uses characters from that era. In the end, we'll never grow up. Rated K-T. Mischief managed.
1. sev&lily: The Story of Us

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer: They spoil every romance by trying to make it last forever.**

Written for the HPFC Dauntless Competition "Stage One Round Three: Fighting"; Cinema Competition "Black Swan"; Numerology Challenge "One- The Agent"; The Star Challenge "Adara"; Duct Tape Challenge "Camouflage"; Your Favourite Hogwarts House Bootcamp [GRYFFINDOR] "24. Pride"; The Off the Block Competition "Freestyle Hard"; Star Light, Star Bright challenge "Red Dwarf" (romance OTP); Journey Through Hogwarts Challenge "Part One: Diagon Alley (f. Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions)". Inspired by Taylor Swift's "The Story of Us" and chapter 33 in Deathly Hallows.

I've fallen in love with tragedies lately. I don't know how many times I have written the Sev / Lily catastrophe – and I know the ending will always be the same – but these two deer-ies (oh Merlin, did I just make a pun?) have an immortal kind of doomed love.

This is for Rose (She who is made of stars) because she is the darling who taught me about the beauty and magic of headcanons.

6 February 2014. Word Count: 3,042

**She was his Achilles' heel.  
**

* * *

**The Story of Us  
**

table of contents:  
prologue: once upon a time.  
i. boy sees girl.  
ii. girl meets boy.  
iii. hogwarts.  
iv. always.  
v. legacy.  
vi. the end.

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prologue: once upon a time.

"Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering."  
~Nicole Krauss, _The History of Love_.

[-]

i. chapter one: boy sees girl.

The story starts in the summer. He was minding his own business while playing in the sandbox in the neighbourhood playground. The sky was a bland sky-blue; the grass a generic grass-green. He sat in the sand and used the clouds to solve puzzles in the sky. His life was as boring as his personality.

And then _she_ came along.

It was dramatic and stars were aligning and he just _had_ to stop and stare at her. She was beautiful in a timeless sort of way, with her scarlet princess ringlets and crown of linked daisies on her head. She was barefoot and dirt-smudged and there were a constellation of freckles dotting her pearly shoulders, but those flaws made her flawless in his eyes. She was with an older girl who wasn't as beautiful, wasn't as timeless, or who wore flowers in her hair. They were playing over by the willow tree across the lake from where his sandbox was. They didn't notice him but he noticed them. Well, specifically _her_.

He couldn't help but observe her. She was magical – literally. Across the lake, she was making a flower open and close its petals like an oyster slowly revealing its pearl. The other girl was freaking out and demanding for the pretty one to _Stop it now, Lily, or else_. But the daisy princess, _Lily_, smiled serenely like a hippie queen and let the flower fly away in the breeze. She linked her arm through the older girl's and told her _You needn't be afraid of it, Tuney_. The other girl scoffed and looked back at the flower floating away. _What a freak_, the not-so-beautiful one mouthed with her head turned away so that he could see her spiteful words while Lily remained oblivious.

A surprising fiery rage raced through his veins, and he had the odd urge to march across the lake and defend his daisy princess's honour. But Severus Snape was no knight in shining armour and he let Lily walk away from him.

It wouldn't be the first time in his life that he didn't have the courage to speak now.

ii. chapter two: girl meets boy.

She returned to the water's edge but he could never muster the valour to go talk to her. Eventually, she did see him and his cloud-y painted pictures in the sky. It was a Tuesday when she (finally!) approached him in the sandbox.

"Hello," she smiled as her periwinkle-painted toes squished in the sand. "I'm Lily."

"I know," he blurted out because he was awkward and had no verbal filter when it came to this pretty girl.

To her credit, she remained unfazed by his verbal faux pas. "Do you live nearby? I think I've seen you around before."

_She_ had noticed _him_? Impossible. He was quite sure he was invisible to every living soul in this world - _no_ one ever paid attention to Severus Snape unless they absolutely had to. He was rather baffled that his daisy princess had taken note of a lowly plebeian like himself.

"Er, y-yeah. Spinner's End-d," he managed to stutter out. Then, in a moment of desperation to seem cool, he introduced himself the way he had seen a slick Muggle guy do it in a film: "The name's Snape. Severus Snape."

She laughed in response, a soft free sound filled with the promise of forever. It echoed with questions and reverberated with stardusted magic. He knew then that Tuesday that he loved her and that he wanted to spend his whole life answering the questions in her laughter. They wasted away the rest of that sparkling summer sitting there by the water. He put his arm around her sun-kissed shoulders and let somebody in close to him for the first time. He made a rebel out of a careless man's careful daughter, and she told him he was the best thing that's ever been hers.

It was the golden age of something right and real, and they were the lucky ones who never saw the ending coming until it was too late.

iii. chapter three: hogwarts.

She was Sorted into Gryffindor. He had always known that she was far braver than him but Slytherins could be brave too. She smiled sadly at him as she went to go face her fate in the lion's den. Both of them knew he wouldn't be joining her in that House.

They fought valiantly over the years to remain the best of friends despite what everyone else predicted. She was a scarlet letter, forbidden to him by his House rules simply because of her muddy blood type. He was a slimy Slytherin git (her House wasn't quite as poetic with their insults like his was) who was a bad influence and would supposedly only end up betraying her. Severus knew he was walking a fragile line concerning his loyalties to Slytherin or to her, but Lily had to have known she would always be his first choice.

In Fifth Year, he lost his balance on the tightrope. He said something he shouldn't have and his words broke her into a million pieces. She saw it as the point of no return where he had made his decision to be with the Death Eaters and their awful morbid beliefs instead of with her; he saw that day as a cruel twist of fate where a simple complication led to miscommunication and the inevitable fall out.

He tried to make things right but she put up so many walls between them that he had no hope of breaking through her defences. _You could be brilliant, but you're a coward,_ she sneered the one time he had gone to her to apologise. There were so many things Severus wished Lily knew - he loved and missed her, didn't she realise that? But she was too busy holding her head up high with that ridiculous Gryffindor pride instead of holding him in her arms.

Severus used to know that his place was the spot right next to her; now he found himself searching the crowded Transfiguration room for an empty seat. He stole a look at her – she was sitting alone in a sea of Gryffindors, looking quite uncomfortable and out of place. It pained him to think that she would rather choose _them_ and their ignorance over him, her best friend. They spent the whole lesson like that, playing a contest of who-can-act-like-they-care-less, but the whole time Severus was remembering when she was on his side instead of theirs. He nervously pulled at his clothes and tried to look busy while she did her best to avoid him. He was dying to know if the absurdly loud silence between the two of them was killing her like it was slowly but surely killing him.

She began to hang out with Potter and his idiots during the time used to spend sitting by the lake with him. He watched on spitefully from the passenger side as she threw her head back laughing like a little kid at one of Potter's jokes – he remembered the glory days when she would scoff and roll her eyes at Potter's lack of brain cells.

If anything, her betrayal pushed him farther into the arms of the Death Eaters. Severus couldn't understand why she was being such a hypocrite and going against everything she had once said against Potter. The Lily Evans she was now was never who his daisy princess had been.

And he missed her, or perhaps it was the memory of her that he missed, but with each passing day he failed to notice his chances to speak now and tell her his side of the story. When he finally gathered the courage to make amends, it was too late: his fate had been sealed in with the Dark Mark on his left arm.

It was official; they were on opposite sides now. He was so scared to see the ending because he was certain their story could only conclude as a tragedy.

iv. chapter four: always.

He heard a prophecy that concerned his master and immediately recited the broken fragments that he had eavesdropped upon. But then the Dark Lord mentioned _Potter_– her name – and that she was expecting a child the same time around the date the prophesised. Severus forced himself to remain calm (he couldn't reveal that his loyalties had always been divided between her and the Dark Lord) but inside he was panicking. He had just put the woman he loved, the one he had vowed to keep safe forever and always, in mortal danger.

So he went to the one person who he knew could be trusted with his secret, and he begged for destiny to be rewritten. But the man behind the half-moon spectacles shook his head solemnly and chastised Severus for dreaming impossible dreams.

"You disgust me," the elder wizard spat out. "You do not care, then, about the deaths of her husband and child? They can die, as long as you have what you want?"

"Hide them all, then," he pleaded even though it physically hurt him to want to keep his arch-nemesis safe. But his daisy princess had chosen a happily ever after with a prince charming who wasn't Severus, and so he had to do everything he could from the sidelines. "Keep her – them – safe. Please."

"And what will you give me in return, Severus?"

Severus thought over the question for a moment, but he's already sacrificed his heart for Lily, his mind to the Dark Lord, and his soul to Dumbledore. There's nothing left that was of value to him personally anymore.

"Anything," he said, and he meant it.

But the hands of Fate had dealt an awful set of cards to him, and it seemed to be that tragedy and death were all that Severus Snape was to be destined to.

"I thought...you were going...to keep her... safe..."

"Trust is a tricky thing, Severus. Some cannot handle the responsibility that comes with it." Dumbledore paused and stared at the broken boy who loved a Gryffindor girl unconditionally. "Her boy survives."

Severus doesn't _want_ her son to live – especially since the repulsive thing is half-Potter – he _wants_ Lily to still be alive, Salazar dammit! "I wish...I wish _I_ were dead..."

"And what use would that be to anyone? If you loved Lily Evans, if you truly loved her, then your way forward is clear."

Severus' heart shatters a bit more at that – how could Dumbledore ever doubt Severus' love for Lily? –

"You know how and why she died. Make sure it was not in vain. Help me protect Lily's son."

A pause, then: "Very well. But never – never tell, Dumbledore! This must be between us! Swear it! I cannot bear...especially Potter's son...I want your word!" His vow was a bitter pill to swallow but he made himself promise because this was for Lily, everything he had ever done was always for Lily.

"My word, Severus, that I shall never reveal the best of you?" Dumbledore sighed, looking down into the Slytherin's anguished face. "If you insist..."

Severus was always one to keep his promises but that Potter boy really made him doubt his word. He couldn't see anything of his daisy princess in that mediocre, arrogant, rule-breaker. But Merlin help him, those eyes were hers, and he felt his heart shattering yet again when those green eyes glared at him in loathing.

_I'm sorry, Lily, I'm so sorry I couldn't save you. I never wanted this. I'm losing my mind thinking you're here with me at Hogwarts again but it's just your son and I'll save him like I couldn't save you. I promise, Lily, I will never fail you again._

But karma was a bitch and his mistake of giving the Dark Lord the prophecy continued to haunt Severus in all of his waking moments. The Dark Lord was determined to eradicate the Potter boy at all costs. First it was with Quirrell, then the blasted Chamber, and now the Triwizard Tournament threatened Potter's life with each task. Additionally, Karkaroff had sought him out to compare Dark Marks – Igor never would've revealed their inked secrets unless he thought the Dark Lord was actually rising again.

"He is panicking," Severus informed Dumbledore quietly at the end of the Yule Ball. "He fears retribution; you know how much help he gave the Ministry after the Dark Lord fell. Karkaroff intends to flee if the Mark burns."

"Does he?" Dumbledore repeated rhetorically. He nodded as if this had occurred to him before. "And are you tempted to join him?"

"No," was Severus' reply. What would his brave flower queen think of him then? "I am not such a coward."

Lily's last words to Severus echoed through his mind: _You could be brilliant, but you're a coward._ Severus despised his younger self for being careless with her and their friendship. He never did deserve her love, he realised, so now he was trying to redeem himself. His whole life revolved around Lily Evans: she was his Achilles' heel.

Dumbledore smiled softly. "No," he agreed. "You are a braver man by far than Igor Karkaroff. You know, I sometimes think we Sort too soon ..."

Was it true? Had he picked up on Lily's selflessness and Gryffindor gallantry during all of this? He curled his lip in disgust. Severus, a Gryffindor? _Never_.

And then Fate laid the final bombshell on Severus: the Potter boy must die despite all of Severus' best efforts.

"I thought...all these years...that we were protecting him for her. For Lily." Severus tried to make sense of what Dumbledore was telling him. "You have kept him alive so that he can die at the right moment?"

"Don't be shocked, Severus. How many men and women have you watched die?"

"Lately, only those whom I could not save." _I promised you, Lily, that I would protect your son. I can't stop, you know that. No one can make me break that promise; not even Dumbledore._

"Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?" Dumbledore asked, misinterpreting Severus' horror at the situation.

"For _him_?" shouted Severus. It was never for the Potter boy. It was always, _always_ for her. For Lily, his daisy princess. For the girl who was barefoot and liked starry nights and was the first one to think he was special and deserved to be loved like anyone else. "_Expecto Patronum!_"

"After all this time?" Dumbledore asked quietly while he watched the silver doe trot away after she nuzzled Severus.

"Always," was his reply, each and every time for the rest of his life.

v. chapter five: legacy.

Dumbledore had made Severus promise to cast the Killing Curse before the other Death Eaters had the chance. Severus hated himself as the words left his lips and the green light flashed and Dumbledore flew spread-eagled out of the Astronomy Tower's window. But Severus knew that Dumbledore had been right yet again: when the curse was cast, Severus' soul had not been damaged as he had feared, for this was for the greater good (as Dumbledore was always preaching about).

Severus hated Dumbledore for being right even in death.

He was running away now with Draco because they were both supposedly _traitors_. And shit, here came Potter, stupid and impulsive as usual with fury and no logic guiding his actions.

"_Cruc_ –" but Severus was determined to honour Dumbledore's wishes to keep Harry's soul intact and not ripped apart by an Unforgivable. He blocked the spell – the Potter boy did not have the nerve or the ability to perform an Unforgivable with enough power – and continued to deflect the other mediocre spells the boy aimed at him in his rage.

"Fight back!" the spawn of Potter screamed at him. "Fight back, you cowardly –"

Dumbledore told him to protect the boy, and Severus had promised Lily that he would keep the boy out of harm's way; but _Merlin_, he wanted to curse and hex that ungrateful little Potter shit. The boy was such a narcissist and never realised the other plans in motion that governed the wizarding world besides the whole trivial Boy Who Lived vs. Dark Lord feud.

"Coward, did you call me, Potter? Your father would never attack me unless it was four on one, what would you call him, I wonder?"

In the distance, the other staff and students at Hogwarts had finally come to their senses; now, they were hurrying out of the castle to fight and Severus noted that his window of opportunity was quickly shutting. "Now _come_!" he yelled at his other 'comrades'. They had to leave; there was no time to be wasted. But Severus didn't trust any of them to not take a shot at Potter while the boy was wandless on the ground. As the others fled, Severus made sure to protect Potter the best he could before his escape.

He underestimated Potter, though, and felt the telltale feeling of nonverbal magic. "No, Potter!" he yelled before the stupid tosser could finish the _Levicorpus_ spell. "You dare use my own spells against me, Potter? It was I who invented them – I, the Half-Blood Prince! And you'd turn my inventions on me, like your filthy father, would you?"

"Kill me then," Potter spat out, staring at Severus with those lily-green eyes. "Kill me like you killed him, you coward – "

"DON'T –" he yelled out in agony, for it wasn't Potter's eyes glaring murderously at him – it was Lily's and he was transported back to his Fifth Year when she told him he could be brilliant, but no, he was a _coward_ instead – and he _hated_ that word as much as he abhorred the word 'mudblood' because it reminded him of the biggest mistake in his life"–CALL ME COWARD!"

It was only after the Dark Lord's snake attacked him and his life bled out on to the Shrieking Shack's floor when Severus allowed Potter access into his memories. He looked into those green eyes – _Lily's_ eyes – and let himself stop answering the questions in her laughter.

_I'm sorry, Lily, I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to save either you or him. Forgive me, love. _

vi. chapter six: the end.

[-]


	2. marauders&sev: Hide-And-Shriek

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer: I muggle-ised the shit out of this HP scene for Ashleigh's competition. You've been warned.**

Written for the HPFC Ashleigh's Monthly Competition "January 2014"; Duct Tape Competition "Polka Dots" (organised chaos); Cinema Competition "The Nightmare Before Christmas"; Poetry Bootcamp "#2"; Your Favourite Hogwarts House Bootcamp [GRYFFINDOR] "14. Omen"

27 January 2014. Word Count: 1,220

**It was a dark and stormy night.  
**

* * *

**Hide-and-Shriek**

[-]

"He halted in the wind, and - what was that/Far in the maples, pale, but not a ghost?" - _A Boundless Moment_, Robert Frost

[-]

Severus Snape was a curious little boy. He had always been inquisitive and enchanted by how the world worked. But what intrigued him the most was people. They were never precise and exact or cookie-cutter moulded carbon copies of one another. Everything was a perplexing shade of grey when it came to the human psyche. He never seemed to understand that the words people spoke weren't always what they meant. His father would tell him grand tales of "the good old days" where he was the dashing prince charming who saved damsels in distress, but then Severus would have a hard time reconciling that heroic image with the half-sober single-parent father who wallowed away his days in amber bottles of liquor.

Severus often spent his time alone and isolated on the playground at Spinner's End to avoid the wrath of his drunken father; at school, since he wasn't as loved or as properly cared for like the other children, he was bullied and ridiculed for his greasy hair or too-big thrift shop clothes. He was quiet and accepted his fate in silence – fighting back would only result in more punishment at home, and secretly he did want to be pampered and admired like the other rich kids were.

One day, the second-in-command of the gang of schoolboys who seemed to hate him the most – they called themselves the Marauders – followed him off the yellow bus and onto the playground near his house. Sirius Black was bigger than him and threatened to beat Severus up but for once, he never did.

"Come on over to the hanging tree at midnight tonight!" the never-serious one said with his messy black hair flopping in his face and eyes shining brightly with mischief.

"Why?" Severus asked suspiciously because Severus always asked why and was always suspicious.

"Aw, don't be a spoil sport, Snivellus!" Sirius Black laughed a bit cruelly with that crooked grin riddled with lies.

"But – but it's Halloween tonight," he protested. He had it all planned out: he was going to go as a basilisk and get lots of candy this year because he would only go to the houses that handed out king-size candy bars.

"What are you, chicken? Bok-bok-bok! I triple-dog-dare ya, Snivelly. At midnight, go to the hanging tree in the graveyard. The Marauders have a secret initiation if you want to be in our club and for some odd reason, Remus wanted you to join. You wouldn't let him down, would you?"

Sirius Black wasn't a very nice person when it came to people like Severus Snape. There wasn't a specific reason why Sirius was a snotty little brat but in general he was a spoiled privileged rich boy who had more opportunities in life than Severus could ever imagine. Perhaps it was a power thing or an attention-seeking characteristic of Sirius' that made him rebel against his aristocratic heritage and be a mean bully with a reputation blacker than his last name.

But as aforementioned, Severus Snape was a curious seven year old. He was also not very perceptive when it came to the underlying evil cavity motives of decay governing a person's actions despite the sugar-coated words they may have said. Severus found himself nodding in agreement - albeit reluctantly - and pinky-swearing an Unbreakable Vow that he would be at the hanging tree in the local graveyard at midnight that Halloween.

It was a dark and stormy night. Severus thought clichés to be a foreboding omen, and in this instance, he was most likely right. The Little Hangleton Cemetery was terrifying in daylight; by light of the shadows and the dark side of the moon, the graveyard was a horror story in the making. He had arrived five minutes to midnight – he wanted to be prompt to the Marauders meeting, you see – and crept along slowly, making sure the scales of his carefully home-made basilisk costume did not scratch off on any stray granite headstones.

The hanging tree was actually a whomping willow on the far side of the cemetery. Severus didn't think that the willow had actually been used to hang people, but the school rumours that floated around like ghosts said otherwise. Needless to say, he wasn't too keen on approaching the leafless skeletal-looking tree.

An owl hooted off in the distance. Every time Severus stepped on a twig, the resulting _crrrack_ splintered his heart with fear. The shadows seemed to shift and slither about and Severus thought he heard whispers of _something_ but he forced himself to continue towards the hanging tree. Severus wasn't a chicken nor a coward, and he was not about to let the Marauders have the satisfaction of seeing him scared witless. He had to show them that he could have the courage of a lion and be brave too. He had to show them that he could be one of them.

The storm overhead made the air thick and heavy; Severus felt like he was walking towards the guillotine of fate. Electricity prickled against his senses and a shiver rolled down his spine. The owl let out another warning before fleeing invisibly into the darkness. Severus was now the only living breathing thing in the cemetery.

He clutched his pillowcase of candy tight to his chest as if it would provide some semblance of comfort. In the distance a flicker of lightning illuminated the world with a camera flash before the snapshot faded away. The skies overhead rumbled and grumbled in frustration at being interrupted and threatened to rain in retribution. Severus quickened his pace to get to the Whomping Willow. He was currently so terrified that he forgot that a tree wasn't the best place to be while lightning was present.

Suddenly the moon shone brightly through a gap in the storm clouds and the smell of ozone increased. Severus' ears popped from the pressure. He squinted against the sudden glare, and his distracted eyes caught sight of movement behind the grandest white marble mausoleum in the graveyard. What was it, pale and silvery fur but not a ghost –

"NO!" he heard someone yell with James Potter's voice before he was tackled to the ground and his head was knocked onto the base of the willow tree. Lightning struck a few metres away from the hanging tree; Severus distantly thought that perhaps his aluminium foil basilisk scales were perhaps not such a good idea after all. "What were you thinking, Padfoot? You know how paranoid Moony gets when he is hyped up on sugar! Why would you invite Snape to our secret hideout without warning either us or him?"

Severus' vision swam alarmingly and his head throbbed to the point that he could feel his heartbeat pulsing in his temple. However, from the ground, Severus was pretty sure he saw a stag, a dog, a rat, and a wolf in that silver-stained moonlight. They were all arguing though in a jumble of senseless syllables, and oddly each animal was standing upright on two legs and hovering over him. They each held a pillowcase bag too – perhaps the animals had been trick-or-treating as well? It made no sense to his throbbing brain. He blinked but could not find the strength to open his eyes ever again on that dark, endless night.

Curiosity killed the basilisk that Halloween.

[-]

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**Author's Note:** Muggle seven-year-old Sev isn't actually dead; he blacked out and woke up with a concussion the next day. The last line simply refers to the phrase "Curiosity killed the cat" and should not be read literally but in the sense that Sev's too-curious nature is what got him in this flobberworm mess.


	3. peter&voldemort: Secret Keeper

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer: JKR is the mastermind behind the HP universe. **

Written for the HPFC Journey Through Hogwarts Challenge "Part One: The Letter (b)"; Your Favourite Hogwarts House Bootcamp [GRYFFINDOR] "48. Tempting"

4 February 2014. Word Count: 198

**"Well? Are you going to make me beg?"**

* * *

**Secret Keeper**

"The Potters have named you their Secret-Keeper?"

"Y-yes, My Lord," the worm-tailed servant stuttered nervously. Sweat beaded his upper lip and his whole body shook visibly.

A pause. Then: "Well? Are you going to make me beg?"

Peter Pettigrew briefly entertained the idea of having the infallible Dark Lord at his mercy before removing such foolishly tempting dreams from his mind.

"You forget that I am a master Legilimens," Lord Voldemort hissed as he mentally probed Peter's mind. "Make your choice – either way, three deaths will occur tonight." He half-heartedly _Crucio-_ed the snivelling Gryffindor to emphasise his point. Then, with a sweep of his bat-leather cloak and armed with the secrets of the traitor, he Apparated himself to Godric's Hollow to end the heartbeats of the two who had thrice defied him and the one predicted to vanquish him forever.

Peter, left behind yet again, endured the mind-numbing pain left from the Unforgivable. The Potters had never stood a chance against the Dark Lord. Peter waited anxiously in the dark for his master's return and the proof that his betrayal to his friends had ultimately saved his life in the end.

Peter hoped they would understand his decision.


	4. james&lily: Lost in Paradise

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer: Not my usual genre for this ship, but whatever.**

Written for the HPFC Journey Through Hogwarts Challenge "Part One: Diagon Alley (g. Ollivander's)" [write your OTP and use the quote 'Kiss me, and you will see how important I am.' – Sylvia Plath for inspiration]; Your Favourite Hogwarts House Bootcamp "23. Fragile"

5 February 2014. Word Count: 270

**He loved her too much.**

* * *

**Lost in Paradise**

He was suffocated by his love for her: somehow she managed to steal the breath out of his lungs and the blood out of his veins. He was a boneless mess whenever she was around, and he was sure that one of these days his fragile heart would be crushed like Atlas from the weight of all the expectations she placed upon him.

James Potter thought the world of Lily Evans. But she was an unattainable queen who tilted her head towards the heavens and whose face was freckled with stardust. Her eyes were cold glittering emeralds as green as the snakes that she wrongly deemed friends instead of foes. James tried to lure her back into the lion's den but she wasn't one to be told what to do. With a toss of her gingersnap hair, she dismissed him out of her mind and pushed him farther out of her orbit.

James resented Snape for stealing **his** Lily away from him. (It was never Lily's fault – she was flawless and perfect in his eyes. He couldn't _hate_ her: he loved her too much.) All James wanted was a chance to show Lily that he was worthy of her love. He wanted her to kiss him - preferably before he graduated from Hogwarts - so she could see how important he was and not the castaway commoner she thought him to be.

And so the poor bloke was blinded with forever tattooed upon his never-whole-to-start-with heart. He misguidedly believed the best of a pitiless queen who had lost her crown to a petunia in a different universe many yesterdays ago.


	5. sirius&marlene: Fly With Me

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer:**

Written for the HPFC Journey Through Hogwarts Challenge "Part One: Diagon Alley (f. Flourish and Blotts) [100-150 drabble]

5 February 2014. Word Count: 149

**"So are you coming?"**

* * *

**Fly With Me**

"What _is_ that?"

"It's a motorbike." The black curly-haired boy flashed an impish grin at her. "Want a ride?"

She frowned disapprovingly and hugged herself tightly to protect herself from the biting Scottish wind. "Sirius, you're not supposed to have that on campus."

The not-so-serious Sirius rolled his eyes. "Way to sound like Evans, Marlene."

"That wasn't nice," Marlene McKinnon said flatly.

Sirius knew that she and Lily Evans were currently disagreeing about Evans' choice in friends (mainly Snivellus, though Evans refused to admit it.) "All right," he apologised. "Sorry; low blow." He straddled his brand-new motorbike and revved the engine. "So are you coming?"

"Where to?"

That wasn't a flat-out no – Sirius could work with that. "Anywhere you want," he promised.

Marlene's decision had been made long before Sirius had offered. "Away from here." She settled herself behind her leather-clad biker boyfriend and went along for the ride.


	6. marauders&lily: Evergreen

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer: Does the wizarding world have a magic Santa Claus?  
**

Written for the HPFC Acrostic-y Competition "The Boy Who Liv**_e_**d" [energy]; Journey Through Hogwarts Challenge "Part One: Diagon Alley (e. Gringotts)" [exchange of gifts]

I posted "The Story of Us" today (it's the first chapter of this collection) so all of you lovelies who missed it the first time around should go read it (:

6 February 2014. Word Count: 941

**"Can you fight later? I want to open presents."**

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**Evergreen**

[-]

"Everything is exciting! The world is wonderful! There are presents underneath the tree!"

A pillow is tossed across the dormitory and hits a brown-haired boy square in his overly-excited face. "Shuddup, Wormtail," says the sleepy pillow-tosser.

Another boy yawns loudly and stretches his torso with bone-cracking precision. "Tone the energy down, Wormy. If you don't, soon you'll be wetting yourself."

"Sorry," the one named Wormtail says quite unapologetically. "But it's Christmas! There are presents! It's snowing and a beautiful day!"

The pillow-tosser aims another pillow at Wormtail. "And it's also bloody seven in the morning."

The other boy lets out another yawn. "Well, I can't go back to sleep now that I am awake." He fumbles on his nightstand for his glasses. "Come on, Wormy. Let's leave Padfoot to his beauty sleep."

A pillow is chucked at the glasses-wearing boy but he is expecting Padfoot's assault and easily deflects the projectile.

"Gimme back my pillow, Prongs," Padfoot whines from his bed because he had foolishly thrown all of his pillows out.

Prongs laughs and shakes his head. "I don't think so."

"Proooongs," Wormtail whined. "I wanna go open presents _now_."

"Oh, grow up already, Wormy," Padfoot huffs. Wormtail responds to this by sticking his tongue out.

"All right, all right, we're going," Prongs says. He and Wormtail leave the Gryffindor Boys' Dormitory and head to the Common Room where a mountain of presents is heaped underneath the tree.

"Oh boy, oh boy, look at all of this!" Wormtail squeals and dashes for the biggest present he can find.

Prongs is not paying him any attention, though, for a certain redhead has stumbled her way out of the portrait hole and into the Common Room. "Where've you been?" he asks cordially albeit with a slight touch of suspicion.

"Good morning to you too, Potter," she says, ignoring his inquisitive tone. She stands next to him by the sofa and watches Wormtail squeak happily in excitement at the wrapped Christmas presents underneath the Common Room evergreen tree.

"That's not an answer," Prongs replies belligerently, his polite demeanour quickly dissolving into a demanding one.

She rolls her emerald eyes at him and crosses her arms over her chest. "Breakfast," she states curtly.

"With?"

Wormtail watches their row with wide eyes. "_Guys_," he pleads. "Can you fight later? I want to open presents."

Prongs sighs. He knows that she knows that he knows that she had been with Snivellus yet again. It shouldn't bother him so much who she hangs out with but she is _Lily Evans_ and he is _James Potter_ and really, that should explain everything.

"Fine," Prongs acquiesces because he is a peacemaker and tries to avoid conflict with his mates as much as he can. He tries to get up and move closer to the tree but his feet seem to be stuck to the carpet. He shifts his gaze from the ground to Lily because she knows everything and can probably tell him what in the name of Merlin is going on.

She, however, is looking up at the ceiling. Her eyes close briefly in what looks to be resignation before she makes direct eye contact with him. "Mistletoe," she explains quietly.

"Right," he says, feeling uncomfortably warm all of the sudden. "Mistletoe." Wizarding mistletoe follows the same traditions as Muggle mistletoe; however, the plant appears without warning in the magical world and locks the people under it in place until they kiss.

Prongs has dreamt about kissing Lily ever since he found out that girls did not, in fact, have cooties. But he never wanted to force his desires upon her – he was a romantic at heart and had wanted to make their first kiss sappy and perfect.

"Um . . ." he says because what else does a person say when they're about to experience true love's first kiss?

"Kiss me on the cheek, Potter," she requests.

And he's been friend-zoned yet again. His skeleton made of wishbones are splitting right down the middle and the world stops spinning for a moment. But he's a Marauder and known for his quick thinking and so he lies to her: "The magic of wizarding mistletoe makes it so that only lip-to-lip contact works." Prongs is betting on the fact that her Muggleborn status will make her unsure about the traditions of wizarding mistletoe.

"Are you sure?" she asks doubtfully.

He hates to deceive her but it is Christmas and this kiss will probably be the only gift he receives from her. "Positive," he confirms. Just out of Lily's line of vision, Wormtail gives his mate a smarmy thumbs-up sign.

They are two Fifth Years stuck in the moment who are sharing the same breath and the same thoughts. It is messy and inexperienced but something changes within the two of them. Both keep their eyes open during the kiss, wanting to see the other at their most vulnerable state.

"Can I go wake Padfoot and Moony now so we can open all of our gifts?" Wormtail loudly and eagerly interrupts, breaking Prongs and Lily apart as the magic of the mistletoe fades away.

"Go ahead," Prongs says to Wormtail but really speaking to Lily as she scurries away, blushing a rosy red. He knows she is going to pretend their kiss never happened but he has Wormtail as a witness.

It doesn't bother him that she is going to revert back to actively ignoring his existence (though he vows to do everything in his power to capture her attention). Their kiss happened whether she will admit it or not, and that knowledge made him the happiest Gryffindor that Christmas.

[-]


	7. james&lily&sev: Veins of Mud

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer: This poem is very organic. I understand that it might seem a bit rough and disjointed in certain stanzas.  
**

Written for the HPFC Acrostic-y Competition "The Boy Who Li**_v_**ed" [volcano]; Monthly Poetry Flood Competition "Feb 2014: hope"

A stream-of-consciousness freestyle poem from Lily's point-of-view.

9 February 2014. Word Count: 640

**So one must be forgotten while the other is your whole world, moon, and stars.**

* * *

**Veins of Mud**

[-]

Vacant eyes see right through you  
and you move slightly  
to  
the left  
to avoid being seen.

You are a paradox,  
an oxymoron (emphasis on the _moron_)  
a pretty ugly  
girl  
absolutely unsure of who you are.

So he tells you  
plain and simple after the O.W.L.s

He sticks you in the dirt, puts you in your place  
one duck stuck in the muck  
Who can help?  
(We can, we can)  
but the answer echoes from a stag and his party of three  
and you're so sure they only want to see how much farther they can knock you down  
so you stay on the ground  
in the mud  
with dirt clouding your vision and colouring your veins.

**[MUDBLOOD]**

Your thoughts echo his parting words,  
the ones that severed a friendship that had once been as unbreakable as a vow.  
Time has erased golden summers  
and now the grass has faded like a photograph of a long-forgotten memory  
but you still remember his name  
and the boy he used to be.

You hope he's still in that stranger's body  
buried  
deep down  
somewhere  
lost but not forgotten.

That familiar stranger has a name  
Severus Snivellus Snape  
you're not so sure who he is anymore but  
he is Severus Snape.

(you think you once knew a Severus Snape)

It sounds like a foreign language  
the name hissing off your tongue as if you were a snake  
but  
you're a

**[MUDBLOOD]**

and those snakes will never let you be  
at the top  
of the food chain  
even though you're a  
lioness  
and you are queen of the jungle.

You belong with the royals  
but they sneer down upon you  
and you know it is all because of your blood.

**[MUDBLOOD]**

The power in a name  
bubbling up from deep inside your volcanic personality  
pressurized and threatening to overflow  
with fiery rage and all-consuming destruction  
mud leaking out of your pores  
the earth quaking out from underneath your feet

that's who you are now.

Once upon a time  
you were a delicate fairytale with a flower name  
and you lived in a never-ending day at the spot where the ocean and sky kiss.  
You had an equal  
another princess with a petal name  
and together you ruled the world where the horizon joins the night and day in an eternal embrace.

But she left you  
a foreshadow that he would too  
and now you are alone  
and so very lonely  
existing in a world of magic because your real life is tragic.

You are sitting by the lake one December night  
reliving the past because you are still stuck  
in the mud  
(and the dirt poisons your mind and clogs your veins)  
but a stag comes along  
and carries the world on his antlers.

He sees you  
perhaps a little too well  
but maybe the way he notices you too much will balance out  
the way Severus is forgetting you.

And James Potter is hopeful  
because Lily Evans is no longer pretending that he does not exist  
But you (Lily Evans) only want to escape the past  
and to do so you have to reverse James' and Severus' roles in your life

So one must be forgotten  
while the other is your whole world, moon, and stars.

When James looks at you, he sees a Muggleborn  
When Severus looks at you, he sees a [Mudblood]  
When you see yourself  
well  
those are your vacant green eyes trying to look for  
someone or something  
in the reflection of nothing in the glassy mirror of the lake.

The dusk and dawn greet each other on the horizon like lost lovers  
and you spin your life towards a better, brighter future  
one with James Potter  
and not with Severus Snape.

Maybe James can teach you how to see yourself  
the way Severus never could.

(Severus who?)

[-]


	8. sirius&lily: Starry Night

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer: short and sweet, just the way I like it.  
**

Written for the HPFC Monthly Poetry Flood Competition "Feb 2014: hope". I'm experimenting with the poetic device _enjambment_ in this poem. And yes, I included an allusion to my favourite novel (:

12 February 2014. Word Count: 117

**I would write your name into the sky.**

* * *

**Starry Night  
**

I would write your name into the sky  
but a star has already claimed your light.

The same light that eclipses a younger star into the shadows of its brother,  
shading the rainbow in fiery hues of gold and crimson that smother.

The green light _(go) _reaching back into the past for a daisy flower  
but you've plucked up a Lily instead in this April rain shower.

The Light that you fight for to vanquish the Dark,  
the Light of hope to rid this magical world of its prejudiced scars.

If I could, I would decorate your name with constellations of the night  
But that would mean you'd have to be Sirius for once in your life.


	9. petunia: Not All Are Bad

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer:  
**

Written for the HPFC Acrostic-y Competition "The Va**_n_**ishing Glass"; Twelve Days of Christmas Challenge "2. canon"

15 February 2014. Word Count: 409

**All flowers need to be cultivated with tender care.**

* * *

**Not All Are Bad**

[-]

Nice people did not get anywhere in life and no one knew that fact better than Petunia Evans. As the elder Evans daughter, _she_ deserved to be adored and fawned over. However, the moment her ungrateful little wretch of a sister had been born, the spotlight had been stolen from Petunia.

No matter what Petunia did, everyone constantly gave Lily all of the attention. Though Petunia had only been on the cusp of her second year when Lily was born, she could vividly remember life before her sister sapped away all of the interest from the eldest Evans daughter. In her younger years, people wrongly assumed that Petunia's jealousy stemmed from typical sibling rivalry. However, as the two Evans sisters blossomed through adolescence, people began to pretend that Petunia did not exist in favour of indulging Lily's frivolous wants and wishes.

Petunia knew that life wasn't fair, but still, what had she done to draw the short stick? All of the beautiful _magical_ genes seemed to be magnetically drawn to Lily, bequeathing Petunia with all of the other unwanted rubbish. She was left with a snooty disposition, unattractive horse-ish features, and a perfectionist complex while Lily – faultless, wonderful, beautiful Lily – was granted with everything that Petunia ought to have had.

She detested her sister for taking away everything that was rightfully Petunia's. Their parents' attention was spent watching in rapt fascination as Lily mock-practised her spells with a tree branch from the back garden instead of congratulating Petunia on her flawless exam scores or acceptance into Oxford. _Not now, Petunia_, the Evans family's favourite phrase, became a euphemism for _you're-not-Lily-so-it-must-not-be-as-important_.

All flowers need to be cultivated with tender care. They need stable support, sunlight, and nutrients to be healthy so they can achieve their full potential. Lily had her parents to ground her and shine golden praise upon her. Petunia had no one – she never did like to share – but she made do and found solace in Vernon Dursley. Perhaps he wasn't the brightest star in the sky, but he did keep her from withering away into the shadows.

Lily was nice, boringly so, but she expected everything to be handed to her on a silver platter. She was fragile, too, and it seemed that she had made some enemies in her freak world. Reflecting back on her own life, Petunia surmised that perhaps she had been luckier in the long run for she was the surviving Evans flower.

[-]


	10. lily: Legendary

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer: Not my best work, but whatever.  
**

Written for Twelve Days of Christmas Challenge "8. poetry"; Your Favourite Hogwarts House Bootcamp [GRYFFINDOR] "21. fairytale"; Monthly Poetry Flood "March 2014: tired"

9 March 2014. Word Count: 226

**This is the legend of Lily Evans.  
**

* * *

**Legendary  
**

[-]

"Once upon a time" is how all of the fairytales begin  
but Lily Evans doesn't want to be a princess  
or even a damsel in distress.

She can compromise and trade her sword in for a wand  
fly on dragons instead of broomsticks  
fight off prejudice instead of pirate ships  
and help the world see right from wrong.

She's tired of the world being saved by boys who don't know what they're doing  
she's tired of sitting on the sidelines pretending that she does not exist.  
She wants to make a difference and be recognised for her intelligence  
instead of being discriminated against.

"Oh, you're a girl, you don't know anything substantial"  
"Shouldn't you be at home cooking in the kitchen?"  
(She'd really like to teach all of those ignorant chauvinistic pigs  
a thing or two about feminism.)

When you hear of a heroine who values personality over heritage  
know that it's her.  
When you hear of a girl who isn't afraid to attack James Potter's hero complex  
know that it's her.  
When you hear of Lily Evans, the person who is advocating equal rights for all magical people and creatures  
know that it's her.

This is the legend of Lily Evans  
a modern day queen without the crown and kingdom.  
Her story doesn't start with "Once upon a time"  
but instead with "Way back when".

[-]


End file.
